Mobile World Conference Implications on Enterprise Mobility

The Mobile World Conference kicked off this week in Barcelona, Spain and is consider one of the largest, if not the largest, industry events based on the number of attendees. Traditionally, the conference has been a platform for innovation in mobile technology where mobile phone manufacturers showcase demonstrations, major announcements and unveil future platforms. Although this year it seems like this is still true, the implications from the show are that the future of mobile technology is becoming more complex with the introduction of the 5th generation of the mobile network (5G).

The promise of 5G is the eventual enablement of more innovation that organizations can leverage to drive increased capabilities. 5G will massively increase bandwidth, paving the way for companies to leverage technologies like AI and edge intelligence (IOT). 5G is expected to be 100 times faster than 4G, but have coverage limitations based on super high frequency airwave and as a result be a compliment to 4G for the foreseeable future rather than replace it. Most carriers have already announced and deployed their first wave of 5G availability in certain urban areas and are now working on the uplink from Wi-Fi to the 5G network.

The largest conversation around 5G right now, which every enterprise organization needs to be aware of, is the security and standards of the network. There are unprecedented geo-political variables at play, highlighting the security risk at a country level, and standards are not as far along as they should be in this stage of the game. As enterprises look to leverage the new capabilities it is important that they know the carriers’ security strategy so that they can extend their edge with confidence. This discussion has gone all the way to the manufacturers of the equipment being used in building the networks and their commitment to security and standards.

Being an international organization, we are spending time understanding the implications to our clients’ technology and their business. We are just as excited as everyone else about the future but are also very focused on the risk associated with the unknown. Here is an excellent article that was published this week by our partner Cisco, reporting from the Mobile World Conference, which we very much align with. https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/enterprise-networks/enterprise-mobility-trends-2019.html

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